Rainbow Wahine shove UC Riverside aside for road sweep

Extended runs in each set helped the University of Hawaii women’s volleyball team continue its domination of its series with UC Riverside.

UH middle blocker Amber Igiede put away a match-high 11 kills and had eight blocks, and opposite Braelyn Akana added 10 kills on 13 attempts in a 25-21, 25-15, 25-15 victory over the host Highlanders on Thursday at SRC Arena in Riverside, Calif.

The Rainbow Wahine opened the match with a 9-1 run before the Highlanders rallied to tie the set at 19-19. The Wahine pulled away to take the set, then jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the second set. Another eight-point surge gave them command of the third as they completed the season sweep of UCR.

UH (13-7, 10-1 Big West) remained alone in first place in the conference and improved to 30-0 in the all-time series with UCR (4-17, 2-10). The Wahine have won the past 30 sets against the Highlanders in a run dating back to 2017.

The Wahine finished off the sweep in 1 hour, 42 minutes and improved to 99-35 during Robyn Ah Mow’s tenure as head coach heading into Saturday’s match at UC Davis (9-12, 4-7).

“We’re really close right now, and that’s one of our really big things, starting dialed before every game,” Akana said in a phone interview. “I think we did a good job of resetting again after that first set and talking to each other about what we had to fix. Focus is a really big thing for us.”

Igiede hit .500 in her 20 swings and tied her career high with three solo blocks. UH outside hitter Riley Wagoner finished with eight kills and 13 digs and posted three of UH’s six aces. Setter Kate Lang recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 26 assists and 12 digs. Libero Tayli Ikenaga added 10 digs and had an eight-point service run in the third set.

UH finished with 53 digs as a team to UCR’s 41 and overcame 18 attack errors in a .216 hitting performance.

Akana put away eight of her first 10 swings on her way to her third double-digit-kill performance of the season from the right side of the UH attack. The junior was also in on three blocks, teaming with Igiede on two early in the second set.

“Any time I’m with Amber it’s always a really fun experience,” Akana said. “We really trust each other, and whenever one of us makes a really big point we get super excited.”

UCR’s Isabella Scarlett had seven kills to lead the Highlanders, who hit .074 as a team with 28 kills against 20 errors.

After UH opened the eight-point lead to start the match, hitting errors helped UCR chip into the deficit and the Highlanders charged all the way back with a 7-2 run, tying the set at 19-19 on a block by Tayler Hifo and Anya Green.

After a timeout, Tiffany Westerberg’s kill was upheld after a UCR challenge and Caylen Alexander followed with an ace. Akana put away back-to-back kills to give UH set point at 24-20, and Wagoner’s third kill of the match gave UH the set.

“Coach Rob did a really good job of bringing the team together and (saying), ‘OK guys we know what we have to do to win so just clean it up,’” Akana said. “That’s what we focused on, just playing our game and being more aggressive.”

The Wahine again took command early in the second set. Igiede had a kill and was in on three blocks in the first five points of the set. This time the Wahine remained firmly in control throughout the set and went to the bench to close it out. Kennedi Evans and Mylana Byrd combined on a block and a kill from Chandler Cowell gave UH set point at 24-12.

UC Riverside took its first lead of the match early in the third set. UH broke a 7-7 tie with an 8-0 run that included three kills from Akana and an ace from Ikenaga. Wagoner extended the lead to 21-10 with her third ace of the match, and she ended the night with her eighth kill.